Beech Hill Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 6.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,675 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares during the quarter. Beech Hill Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,070,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,807 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 2,882 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 540,046 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $20,565,000 after purchasing an additional 115,552 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 145.4% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 71,014 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,704,000 after buying an additional 42,075 shares in the last quarter. Sprott Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 138.6% in the 4th quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 36,284 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,382,000 after buying an additional 21,080 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 3,256,047 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $123,990,000 after acquiring an additional 236,012 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $41.64 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $38.77 and a 200 day moving average of $38.17. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $52.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.64.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 7.11%. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Dbs Bank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 48,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.